Altamira x Audubon's Oriole

About the Altamira x Audubon's Oriole

This bird is a genuine oddity: a hybrid between an Altamira Oriole and an Audubon's Oriole, two species that overlap only in the brush country of deep South Texas. It shows a blend of both parents -- the blazing orange of an Altamira washed through with the greenish-yellow back and more extensive black of an Audubon's. No field guide has a page for a bird like this, which is exactly what makes it worth photographing.

Hybrids between these two orioles have been reported a handful of times in the Rio Grande Valley, almost always at feeding stations where both species come in close. Each one looks a little different depending on which traits it inherited, so every documented individual adds something to the record.

I photographed this bird in December 2022 during a Rio Grande Valley trip, working the same feeders that were drawing in pure Altamira and Audubon's Orioles for direct comparison. Having all three in the same binocular view removed any doubt about what I was looking at.

For photographers, birds like this are a reminder to shoot first and sort it out later. An oriole that looks slightly wrong for either species may be the most interesting bird of the whole trip.